Roger Waters ‎– Is This The Life We Really Want? - 2017 Prog Rock 2LP

Roger Waters ‎– Is This The Life We Really Want?

Label:
Columbia ‎– 88985 43649 1
Format:
2 × Vinyl, LP, Album
Country:
US
Released:
02 Jun 2017
Genre:
Rock
Style:
Prog Rock

Tracklist

A1 When We Were Young 1:38
A2 Déjà Vu 4:27
A3 The Last Refugee 4:12

B1 Picture That 6:47
B2 Broken Bones 4:57

C1 Is This The Life We Really Want? 5:55
C2 Bird In A Gale 5:31
C3 The Most Beautiful Girl 6:09

D1 Smell The Roses 5:15
D2 Wait For Her 4:56
D3 Oceans Apart 1:07
D4 A Part Of Me Died 3:12

Companies, etc.

Distributed By – Columbia Records
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Jule Pond Productions LLC
Copyright (c) – Jule Pond Productions LLC
Licensed To – Columbia Records
Published By – Roger Waters Music Overseas Ltd.
Published By – BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Published By – Copyright Control
Recorded At – United Recording Studios
Recorded At – Fivestar Studio
Recorded At – Electric Lady Studios
Recorded At – Wack Formula
Mastered At – Gateway Mastering
Lacquer Cut At – Alchemy Mastering
Mastered At – Record Technology Incorporated – 27817
Credits

Arranged By [Strings] – David Campbell, Nigel Godrich
Arranged By, Sounds [Sound Collages], Keyboards, Guitar – Nigel Godrich
Bass, Guitar, Keyboards – Gus Seyffert
Creative Director – Sean Evans (4)
Design – Dan Ichimoto, Danny Kamhaji, Sean Evans (4)
Drums – Joey Waronker
Engineer – Nigel Godrich, Sam Petts-Davies
Engineer [Assistant, Electric Lady] – Gosha Usov
Engineer [Assistant] – Monique Evelyn, Rouble Kapoor, Wesley Seidman
Engineer [United Recording] – Darrell Thorp
Keyboards – Lee Pardini, Roger Manning*
Keyboards, Guitar – Jonathan Wilson
Lacquer Cut By – Bazza (2)
Management – Mark Fenwick
Management [Associate] – Kate Watkins
Mastered By – Bob Ludwig
Mastered By [Vinyl] – Barry Grint
Photography By [Smell The Roses] – Viktor Bulla
Photography By [The Most Beautiful Girl] – Richard Rowley
Producer, Mixed By – Nigel Godrich
Vocals – Holly Laessig, Jess Wolfe
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Bass – Roger Waters
Voice – Celia Drummond, Emma Clarke, Ingrid Schram, Jane Barbe, Kathy Somers, Rachel Agnew
Written-By – Roger Waters, Mahmoud Darwish* (tracks: D2)
Notes

Comes in a gatefold cover, inner sleeves with lyrics.

Recorded at:
United Recording
Five Star Recording
Electric Lady Studios
Wack Formula Studio

Mastered at Gateway Mastering
Vinyl Mastering at Alchemy

( pitchfork 2017) "

To be fair, Waters was ahead of the curve in lamenting our attachment to media saturation on *Amused to Death—*modern life has basically become what that album anticipated. So it makes sense that Is This the Life answers back with a plea for sanity. And to his credit, much of it comes across as both sincere and necessary—albeit draped in Waters’ habit of being preachy and pedantic. (Two years ago, he described the new material as his way of sending humanity a mediocre report card.)

Yes, the radio-style announcements at the top of “The Last Refugee” would indicate that Waters hasn’t stretched much beyond his now-predictable arsenal of sound effects. The same goes for its languid drumbeat. The album even calls Godrich into question—tunes like “The Last Refugee” and “Is This the Life We Really Want?” are sometimes hard to tell apart from Sea Change-era Beck. Godrich and Waters didn’t push each other to break new ground as much as one might have hoped. But “The Last Refugee,” with its images of lovers lying “Under lemon tree skies” and “Dreams/Up to our knees/In warm ocean swells,” also shows that Waters has grown into an evocative poet—that is, when he isn’t spelling out his message on songs like “Picture That.” “Picture your kid with his hand on the trigger,” he sings, “Picture prosthetics in Afghanistan.” Then again, it’s hard to argue with a verse like “Picture a shithouse, with no fucking drains/Picture a leader, with no fucking brains.”

Waters’ predictability doesn’t diminish his effortless songwriting, and Is This the Life We Really Want? presents his tightest, most focused songs since the mid-’70s. “Wish You Were Here in Guantanamo Bay,” he sings on “Picture That.” The first letters of the phrase are capitalized in the lyric sheet, a sly nod to both the popular tourist postcard and, of course, to the Pink Floyd song and album of the same name. Even casual fans will spot Waters’ hint of the old melody right away. Is This the Life’s myriad sonic references to his work with Pink Floyd suggest that Waters is comfortable with his past. The more you accept how much his past reflects in his present, the more receptive you’ll be to this album’s charms."